Hong Kong,
18
December
2020
|
10:05
Asia/Hong_Kong

Holiday Fraud Concerns During Pandemic Come True

Summary

TransUnion research finds rate of suspected early holiday e-commerce fraud coming from Hong Kong rose 41% compared to same period in 2019 and was 3rd highest globally.

TransUnion (NYSE TRU) today released new findings around online retail trends during the start of the 2020 global holiday shopping season. The research shows the rate of suspected online retail fraud[1] coming from Hong Kong during the start of the 2020 holiday shopping season was 28%, which was a 41% increase compared to the same period in 2019. TransUnion also found that Hong Kong had the 3rd highest rate of risky e-commerce transactions coming from it among all countries, administrative regions and territories worldwide so far this holiday season. The findings are based on the online retail transactions TransUnion analyzed for its e-commerce customers from Double 11 (Nov. 11) to Cyber Monday (Nov. 30).

Heading into the holiday shopping season, the global TransUnion Financial Hardship Study conducted from Nov. 1 to Nov. 5, 2020 found 36% of 1,000 Hong Kong consumers said they had been targeted by digital fraud related to COVID-19, a 20% increase from the same survey during the week of April 13. According to the recent survey, 8% of the respondents stated that they acted on a digital COVID-19 fraud scheme and are now a victim of it. That is the same percentage as the week of April 13 survey.

“With the COVID-19 pandemic accelerating the move from offline to online transactions, detecting digital fraud attempts has become paramount for e-commerce providers,” said Jerry Ying, Asia Pacific Vice President, Innovative Solutions Group, TransUnion. “In order to avoid cart abandonment with all of these new sales opportunities, it is equally if not more important to ensure consumers are able to make friction-right digital transactions.”

In addition to the above findings, TransUnion released the following fraud trends:

  • The percent of suspected fraudulent e-commerce transactions coming from Hong Kong during the start of the holiday shopping season and entire year from 2018 to 2020.
  • 28.29% from Nov. 11 to Nov. 30, 2020. 42.17% so far in 2020.
  • 20.06% from Nov. 11 to Dec. 2, 2019. 7.83% in the whole of 2019.
  • 0.16% from Nov. 11 to Nov. 26, 2018. 3.21% in the whole of 2018.
  • The days with the highest percent of suspected fraudulent transactions coming from Hong Kong during the start of the 2020 holiday shopping season.
      1. Cyber Monday, Nov. 30: 32.56%
      2. Black Friday, Nov. 27: 31.97%
      3. Double 11, Nov. 11: 29.92%
      4. Saturday, Nov. 28: 26.15%
      5. Thanksgiving, Nov. 26: 24.54%

For an infographic about TransUnion’s holiday online retail findings globally, go here.

[1] Suspected fraudulent and risky transactions are those that TransUnion’s customers either denied or reviewed due to fraudulent indicators